Tulare County Biographies
LEWIS A. SICKLES
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
In Lewis county, northeast Missouri, Lewis A. Sickles was born, in 1874, and
there made his home until he was about twenty-five years old, when he went to
Kansas City, Mo., where he lived until 1904. Then he came to Porterville, Tulare
county, and after living there two years he removed to Springville, Cal. Two
years later he bought the Springville hotel, which he still owns, and which has
been written up in the Visalia Morning Delta, published December 21, 1912, as
follows:
There is no class of institutions throughout the whole category of business
concerns which exercise so wide an influence or have so important a bearing upon
the general character of a city as its leading and most representative hotels.
These establishments have an individuality which becomes impressed and engrafted
upon the character of the community, and to the vast majority of the transient
traveling fraternity a city is just what its hotels make it; for it is here that
the visitor receives his first and his last distinct impressions, and
accordingly as he is favorably or unfavorably inclined toward the hostelry of
his temporary abiding place, in just that measure is he pleased or displeased
with the community in which it is located.
Springville has every reason to be proud of the Springville hotel; it has
thirty-two large airy rooms, all comfortably furnished, and the dining room has
a seating capacity of seventy-two.
Mayor L. A. Sickles bought this hotel six years ago, and then it was not the
hotel that it is today, for it was only one-third of its present size. Mr.
Sickles is commonly referred to as the Mayor of Springville, for it was to him
that the honor fell to drive the last spike in the completion of the railroad.
Mayor Sickles is a genial host, ever looking after the comforts of his guests,
and he leaves no stone unturned to impress upon all of his patrons the wonderful
resources of this chosen spot.
In 1906 Mr. Sickles married Anna Akin, a native of Shelby county, Ohio. In 1895
his father and mother came to this state and his father, B. T. Sickles, is
living in Porterville. Mr. Sickles is one of the directors of the Chamber of
Commerce of Springville and was so important a factor in securing the
construction of the railroad to that city that on the completion of the line he
was tendered the honor mentioned.
This progressive man was educated in his native Missouri and has always been
connected with enterprises of importance. For four years before he came to
California he was a foreman in the packing house of Schwarzschild & Sulzberger
at Kansas City. After coming to California he became proprietor of the hotel as
stated. This is the only hotel in the town and he manages it with much ability,
catering successfully to both transient and commercial trade.
It is as a self-made man that Mr. Sickles should appeal most strongly to those
who come to know him. Starting out in life with nothing, he has made a success
in every way creditable, and such of this world's goods as he possesses he has
won. by his own unaided ability and industry. Wherever he has lived his public
spirit has never been found wanting. He is deservedly popular in business
circles and in a fraternal way he affiliates with the Modern Woodmen.
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California with Biographical Sketches -
Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company, 1913, pp. 571-572